The actual term ‘documentary’ was originally used by the English philosopher Jeremy Bentham in the early 19th century but as a reference within visual culture it was British film maker, John Grierson who famously in 1926 in a review of a film by Robert Flaherty about Polynesian youth, described the film as having ‘documentary value.’
Collection of historical documentary photographs which collaborate within societal issues and regimes.May 16, 1957. Chicago, IL. Vivienne Meier
The birth of documentary as a popular form is clearly linked historically to the development of print technology and the proliferation of large-scale mass press in the 1920s and 30s of popular illustrated photo magazines and publications such as Life Magazine in the USA, Picture Post in Britain, Vu in France, Illustrierte in Germany, Drum in South Africa and many others.
‘VU’ French Magazine, published 1937‘Life Magazine, published 1964
These magazines which were based on the extensive use of photographs to tell stories to the needs of a newly literate urban population constitutes the start of the modern movement of photojournalism.
‘Life’ Magazine, published July 14, 1972A collage made of ‘Drum’ Magazine, South Africa published 1960’s.
This new breed of photographers were the ones ‘out there’ bringing photographs home – a reporter of everyday life who supplied the pictures for this growing market.
Early Documentary Photography
Curtis was criticized for altering his photography so that it represented the Native American people as the “noble savages” that they were stereotyped as at the time. By retouching photographs in order to remove traces of western civilization, he’s been accused of painting Native Americans as a “vanishing race” and drawing attention away from their true plight. This was the start of regarding documentary photography as a false representation of society, sparking the new era of ethics in photography, and setting guidelines of what makes an immoral and moral photograph.
By the time of the Civil War, the daguerreotype and other modernized equipment had entered the realm of middle-class consumer culture and established a popular follow up, often to the dismay of photographers promised and dedicated to uphold photography as an art form. Documentary photography developed during this period and was often consigned by art critics to become the new era of journalism, an association that persists to the present.
This consignment implied that documentary photographers were mere recorders, skilled technicians to be sure, but passive observers of the social scene but not wanted as the depiction of an artist. Documentary photographers accepted this characterization in order to burnish the perceived realism of their imagery.
In 1906, etiologist and photographer Edward S. Curtis set out across the United States to draw, photograph and otherwise document the lives of Native Americans that hadn’t yet been contacted by Western society.
Photographers like Edward S. Curtis have valued the art of documenting society as a way of reflecting the cultures of the early American lifestyles. Since then, the bounding of events which happened throughout history have been recorded through the lenses of moral choice, a question which over time has been issued in modern documentary photography.
Modern Documentary Photography
Two urban photographers, Jacob Riis and Lewis Hine, took up the effort to explore the “wilderness” of the inner city and thereby establish documentary photography as a tool of social reform. Lewis Hine used his photographs as instruments in changing the Child Labor laws in the United States. This opened up a new generation of demoting world change in order for democracy to demure and relax the laws cared for by young, mostly migrant children.
A Variety of Jobs: Young boys working for Hickok Lumber Co. Burlington, Vermont.Worker on Empire State building, ‘Signaling the Hookman’ (1931)
Photographers now revive the impacts crisis have towards communities in order for the public to react in a debating and democratic way. Documentary photography is now a looking glass tool into the eyes of people fighting against these events in order for governments and large parties to make and ensure political change on that place, in order to cut back on any future deconstruct. For instance, Indian documentary photographer Abir Abdullah captured some of the victims following the floods in Bangladesh in early 2004.
A women in Bangladesh struggling to cope with the drastic changes she must deal with prior to the devastating flooding. Abdullah would of wanted world leaders to reconcile aid into Bangladesh to promote more devastation.
For my first shoot i think that i will photograph my aunt. She has recently given birth to a baby boy and i think that it will be interesting to photograph how her life has changed since she has had him. For these images i will photograph the everyday mundane life that they lead, but i will also try to capture special moments between the husband and wife. For these photographs technically i am photographing from an insiders perspective as it is part of my family, but i see this as an outsiders perspective into their family life. In the previous AS task i photographed my aunt and her husband while she was pregnant to capture life before the baby. Although these images were set up and they were not of everyday life, they were stylized images. I placed these images together to make a sort of story board of what happened this night. I think that these images show a very idealistic life that does not show what happens behind closed doors. I think that it will be interesting to photograph my auntie because i do not know what happens behind closed doors either and i think documenting their life will help me get closer to my family.
In these set of images i will try to go once a week to photograph them in their home and outside of their home. I will also try to take images of my auntie in her work place, as she is the manager of Macmillan Jersey and it would be good to photograph her in her work place. For these images i will also try to recreate these photographs but with her new little boy in them.
From The New York Times Newspaper article: “Posing Questions of Photographic Ethics”in June 2015, it states photographers have to wear away from moral and immoral questions towards crisis’s which have been documented throughout the modern world’s history. This is evident as the times state ‘blowback’ is to come for artist Michael Camber as his latest exhibition: “Altered Images: 150 Years of Posed and Manipulated Documentary Photography”. The exhibit, a selection of well-known images that have been adjusted, staged or faked, as an indictment of some modern practices, and practitioners of photojournalism. A founder of the Bronx Documentary Centre where the show was being exhibited quotes:
“I think some people will be unhappy” and adds that people are being “called out”
PHOTO BY BALAZS GARDI. The child was actually wounded by an American airstrike, not a Taliban suicide attack. Gardi, a highly regarded photojournalist, complained about the misleading usage of his photo and severed his ties with Newsweek magazine.
purely for a reaction done founded by the fakery of originally composed images. Kamber, the owner then goes on to add:
Photo by J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE. The photo’s setting, including the “Mission Accomplished” banner and the location of individuals in the crowd, was staged by the Bush administration to create a positive image of the war’s progression.
“I’ve lost friends who put their lives on the line to get it right, and then you have people faking it”.
The New York Times have subsequently illustrated that its immoral to document fake photography when its been manipulated and edited for public fulfilment In conjunction to this argument, a more recent article from The Times in early September of “Image of Drowned Syrian, Aylan Kurdi, 3, Brings Migrant Crisis Into Focus” shadows the lives of many immigrants wanting to travel from Syria into other European countries and even outside of Eurasia.
Headlines regarding conspiracy over the documentation crisis in Syria.
People who have seen the famous image have reacted to the moral decency of capturing something so helpless; taking hold of the situation by being a bystander and observer of the boy, suggesting the photographer is dictating awareness of the incidents happing in Syria or, moreover, dodging the provisional help the photographer could of done, rather than taking a photo all in all regards to the standards and ethics when documenting crucial worldwide events and society’s moral values.
A Syrian man carrying the drowned boy from the sea shore. Action was protested over the photographer of this image was morally correct after documenting this image instead of interacting with the crisis.The Drowned Boy lays dead on the sand.
Prime Ministers and other leaders across the globe where impacted through the media of Abdullah Kurdi’s sons and wife as he was interviewed in distress after the tragic outreach of photographs and documents of his dead son. David Cameron added how he was “deeply moved” by the photos of the deaths and pledged to fulfil Britain’s “moral responsibility” and French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said the images showed the “need for urgent action by Europe”.
Salvador Dali is one of the most celebrated artists of all time. His fiercely technical yet highly unusual paintings, sculptures and visionary explorations in film and life-size interactive art ushered in a new generation of imaginative expression. From his personal life to his professional endeavors, he always took great risks and proved how rich the world can be when you dare to embrace pure, boundless creativity.
Gillian Wearing uses the idea of chance, challenge and change which she uses in a video she made called ‘Dancing in Peckham’, in this video it is just of a lady dancing, with no music in the middle of what looks like shopping centre, in this video there are people walking past at all different times within this video, with different facial expressions which makes them keep a distance from her, whether this is because they think it is strange or they have seen the camera and they do not want to have photographs taken of them. Gillian Wearing was born in 1963 and made 70’s television into fine art and because of this TV programme makers and advertisers have copied her. Wearing works with video recordings of performances but also photography, she characterises her art as a ‘kind of portraiture’. http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2000/jun/03/art
In some of Wearing work she has tried to use the idea of challenge and change by using masks and other disguises to remove her face so there is no visual of the person, some say that this is as if she ‘distrusts the face’. One of Wearing’s projects was when she walked down Walworth Road and bandaged her face and videoed herself walking down the street while she had people tell their secrets, as she had a mask on and so did the people, this removed their identity, and the idea of wearing a mask i think plays with the idea of performance photography. In the video of Wearing dancing in the shopping centre…
William Blake – “The most sublime act is to set another before you.” This portrait is an attempt to become, rather than to paint, another person.
When Wearing went to take this video she first saw in the distant there was a lady who was dancing to some jazz music where she was dancing completely out of time and it looked as if she didn’t care as she was ‘caught in the moment’ but this women caught Wearings eye as she was away from everyone else in her own little world. So in Wearings video she sets out to recreate the idea that she saw of this lady in the Royal Festival Hall who was caught in the moment by dancing completely out of sync to the music, but enjoying herself so much.
“Dancing in Peckham is a 25-minute video that shows on an ordinary television monitor. The dancer, Gillian Wearing, under the vaulted glass roof, on the shiny pavement, has a look of intense seriousness on her face. She throws her hair about, shakes, gets down. She looks ridiculous, in a public place in broad daylight. She is not dancing to a Walkman, just to sounds in her head. Before making the video she practised dancing to some of her favourite music – Nirvana, Queen, Gloria Gaynor.” http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2000/jun/03/art
Illustrator Andy Warhol was one of the most prolific and popular artists of his time, using both Avant-Garde and highly commercial sensibilities.
Born on August 6, 1928, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Andy Warhol was a successful magazine and advertisement illustrator who became a leading artist of the 1960’s Pop art movements. He ventured into a wide variety of art forms, including performance art, film making, video installations and writing, and controversially blurred the lines between fine art and mainstream aesthetics.
Micheal Jackson
Andy is very clever at challenging the subverted roles of famous and well known people. He sets them in a role through the technique of pop-art and recent art culture, to signify their characteristics and bring out their personality through colour and vivid lines and geometry.
A collection of Andy Warhol’s Polaroids which he captured in the late 1900’s.
Some of Andy Warhol’s work includes that of Polaroids. Andy captures many of the risen stars of the late 1900’s through Polaroids in a technique of challenging their fame and why they are at the top. Warhol worked with the likes of Mick Jagger, in a way he wanted to show society what life is like in fame. Using a Polaroid also suppresses the normality and mundane surrounding regarding the characters chancing their role through a normal and reflective stance.
The images below are mine that I took during my time in Idaho Springs, Colorado. I thought this rustic and classic composition can work alongside his work in a comparative and subversive way. The edits I made of these images show how I’ve used colour and sharp edges to receive an outcome like Warhol.
Below, I have created a grid in the style of Andy. I did this in Photoshop using a ‘web’ format to create this grid.I also used a layer mask in order to bring out the colours and vivid lines within the photograph. Overall, I am very happy with the success of this interpretation, as I feel I have grasped his ideologies in society and how he uses art to encounter everyday life and its events. I feel as if my interpretations have really challenged and changed my approach when it comes to working with the public’s reactions and ideologies and how its chanced me to venture outside my comfort zone when approaching these interpretations.
John Baldessari is an artist that radicalizes ideas such as psycho-geography and situationism. His approach to society and the public sphere radiate through his playful and symbolic works. His ideas suppress many aspects of chance, challenge, and change as John Baldesssari tests reactions of people who are put in the vulnerable position of interpreting his art.
John Baldessari’s most early project was him self-erecting a fake $100,000 Bill At The High Line. His objective was to challenge the views of the public after the attitudes towards 100,000 dollar bills in the early Great Depression, that hit the united states in the 1930’s. It was recorded that only around 42,000 dollar bills were printed, ensuring that John’s work suggests severe importance and rarity which dates back to the time dollar bills where seen as such as a idyllic characteristic in society. Johns expansion of this piece of art sticks out to the public as a figure of historic significance, regarding that money is a valuable and suggestive object which is precious to any growing economy.
“Bill Board”
Other works of John show strategic and abundant ideas. John chances his own ideas by showing his thoughts in a more modern, developing society. Here, John’s work ‘Brain Cloud’ shows how society looms over paradisaical and ideal aspirations.
On this trip we went to ST Malo with Tom Pope, we got split into groups and went off to take our own ‘performance’ photographs. This is where we had planned for around 3 different shoots which we were going to take while we were in St Malo.
Here we could also use the concept of psycho-geography and we could use the environment to inspire us, for this we walked around until we found something that gave us an idea. As we walked through and opening me and my group saw the carousel which was not turned on. So for this performance idea we went onto the carousel and spun the teacups on it and took videos of each other while spinning around.
For this image i took a photograph of a man blowing some bubbles, i think that i could of improved this image by changing the composition and showing other people in this image, to get the ‘audiences’ reaction. However, i think that by just showing this man in this image makes it interesting as the man is performing for the camera and blowing the bubbles.
SHOOT 1:
For one of my shoots there was a man and his two dogs and two people from my group placed themselves next to the dogs and tried to reenact what the dogs were doing; which at this point was just lying down.
I think that these images are interesting because of the man in this image, by having the man in this image you get his response to what the two girls are doing, and he looks very concerned. We noticed that whenever you ‘performed’ in front of the camera it would attract people to look over and see what you were doing as they were very interested.
SHOOT 2:
For this shoot two of the girls went and sat down next to a man and copied his facial expression and his posture. As the man spoke french and did not really understand what they were saying he thought it was funny.
For these images i tried to take some varied focal lengths when i was taking them, but i think that i should of changed the angles to make the images more interesting and get a more straight on view of them coping what the man was doing.
SHOOT 3:
For this shoot we were with Tom Pope and we carried around one of the girls through the town and she would have to direct us where to take her.
I think that the top image is interesting because you have the people far away watching as if they are the ‘audience’ in this performance and they were watching to see what was happening. From being on this shoot we walked past a fancy dress shop where we saw some costumes which the group where inspired by and started having a sword fight with each other.
After we took these photographs the man and his son came out of the shop and told them to stop playing with the swords, i think it would of been good if i had videoed this and then got the man coming out which would of made a good video.
I placed these images together to make a sort of story board of what happened this night. I think that these images show a very idealistic life that does not show what happens behind closed doors. I think that it will be interesting to photograph my auntie because i do not know what happens behind closed doors either and i think documenting their life will help me get closer to my family.
After we took these photographs the man and his son came out of the shop and told them to stop playing with the swords, i think it would of been good if i had videoed this and then got the man coming out which would of made a good video.